[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]* Why is it called the Vic ''Viper''/Warp ''Rattler''? Because the Options trail behind it in a serpent-like fashion, and the iconic front fins are designed to invoke the image of a snake's fangs.* ''Gradius V'' features an in-game and plot-relevant moment of fridge brilliance, but it's neither the only time this occurs in the series nor the troper's story...** The obscure (even for this series) Nemesis II (also known as Gradius: The Interstellar Assault) for the original Game Boy begins with the series' protagonist spacecraft Vic Viper escorting a pair of friendly freighters, before they get shot down by a huge core, which chases the still quite helpless player (starting off with no powerups) into an asteroid. Said game ends with you speeding after the fleeing big bad, through a graveyard of large ships. This troper thought that something about the music here ("Pursuit") was unusually epic for the context, until he realized where he'd seen ships like this before: Your friends from the intro! They aren't the same ships, but he realized that the game was telling him "Hey remember how this game started? With you running for your life from a huge boss? Who's got the big guns now?"* In ''Gradius Gaiden'', on successive loops in [[BossBonanza Stage 8]], '''Heaven'''[='=]s Gate is the '''[[RuleOfSeven seventh]]''' boss you fight.** In Stage 7, why is your ship capable of flying through an area being sucked up by a black hole, the only signs of struggle being its shaking animation? Because, according to [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]], the player ships have a maximum speed of ''[[FasterThanLightTravel five times the speed of light]]''.

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]* Why are most of the Gradius final bosses so easy? [[ILetYouWin Because they take a dive]]. [[ICameBackStrong You see, every time the final bosses get defeated, the Bacterian come back stronger and more powerful]]. Eventually, there will be a point when the Bacterians are too powerful for the Vic Viper to fight, causing the Bacterians to win and take over the universe.